Carina Ayden On Being an Environmentalist Founder Building Resilient Products

What Inspired You to Become an Environmentalist? 

I was 9 y.o. when my dad organized a trip to the Space Control Center where I saw the live feed of Earth from the Space Station. At 11 y.o., I saw the Greenpeace TV commercial that showed brave people standing against oil drilling. The animals that were covered in oil from the spills and the dead marine life — made me realize how humans negatively impact the world. I have been fascinated with the natural world since but approached it not from the academic side but from the activism side. Now, I study ecology and circular materials management.

What Are the Biggest Challenges in Eco-Friendly Food Production Nowadays?

Food affects so many facets of life: from social, like human rights, to public health, environment, and many more. So it seemed to be a multi-dimensional playing field for me to help tackle some of the issues. When I started my first food company in 2012, I was very naive. The willingness to create a 360 sustainable model was the goal, but with every step I took toward it, I was presented with another bottleneck. Despite that, some eco-friendly solutions already existed at the time, and the fragmentation of the industry made it very difficult to connect the dots. Integrating any new sustainable solution within the multi-level, complex supply chain is extremely challenging.

How Did You Come Up With the Recipes for the Environmentally-Friendly Snacks?

In 2016, a friend of mine sent me a report by United Nations about pulses and their ability to be the solution to global hunger. In this report, United Nations also proclaimed pulses “The architects of soil health.” So, as an environmentalist, I started looking at the white space and the opportunity to reformulate traditional snacks by adding this healthier crop.

What Other Sustainable Initiatives Do You Support in Your Company?

The core mission is replacing traditional monocultures that destroy the soil, with soil-nourishing pulses (peas, chickpeas, beans). I haven’t given up on the idea of a 360 sustainable model, and by adding new initiatives, I’m inching closer to it. I started to eliminate all non-recyclable plastic from our packaging and revelry all the supply chain. There are better solutions out there, but we are still working on integrating them into the company. It took a while to find reliable and trusted resources when it came to managing the offsets. Through a verified 3rd party, we get to work with regenerative farmers and put the carbon we produce over the year back into the soil. On top of it, we work with a few non-profits through which we offset our e-commerce shipping by planting trees in the U.S. where the trees are needed the most. So far, we’ve planted our samplings in Oregon state. This year, we are focusing on California.

In Your Opinion, Why Are People Not Aware of How Food Production Influences the Environment? Do You Think That Millennials Are More Conscious in That Regard?

With digitalization came social media, and we still pontificate on its effects on our brains. I think technology is a tool, and it’s up to a person the way he/she wants to use it. I personally love social media for the way it ripped the curtains of a few industries and let us peek “behind the dark curtains”. Animal agriculture is one of the leading industries that are toxic to the environment, not to mention the extreme cruelty to animals. It’s not common knowledge that animal farming is linked to pollution, deforestation, and the degradation of nature. Someone has to be doing their own research to make these connections. I think millennials are the generation that grew up without Google and social media, but then witnessed the digital explosion and became curious about things. That fed into my own curiosity and “do-your-own-research” mentality. When I was in school, I had to go to public libraries to find answers to some of the things. Now, it's just me and the search engine. Gen Z was practically born with it, and they are equally concerned about the environment and pollution.

Do You Believe People Care About the Sustainable Aspects of the Products?

In 2020, just less than 2 years after the launch of the company, was featured on Bloomberg national TV and was named as the “The most eco-friendly product” in its category. It was unbelievable that without any PR machine behind the brand, the product spoke for itself and was recognized by the media. I believe that people care, they do; it’s just there’s research that shows that when a customer makes a choice, their decision is predominantly swayed towards the cheaper price. So it’s pivotal to keep carving out the space for sustainable products and work with institutions and the policymakers to bring the prices down of the ingredients and raw materials that are for the public good. We need a systems approach to push better products ahead of the conventional ones.

Do You Know Other Environmentalist Founders? Do You Collaborate?

I know a few, and I empathize with their struggles. Things have gone better since I started: there are more sustainable solutions, pollution and the environment is more on the agenda, which drives the consumer and supplier awareness. During the pandemic, my conversations with other founders became more intimate, we deeply connected on the idea that sustainability is at the top of our priorities.

How Do You See the Future of Food Production?

The future of food is regenerative, smart, and sustainable. Otherwise, the current system won't be able to sustain another 3 billion people by 2050. I think mega-cities will be getting fresh produce from vertical farms, plant-based proteins will mimic the taste of animal meat 1:1 to address the growing demand for animals, and cell meat agriculture is taking off where meat from a cruelty-free single cell will be grown in bio-rectors. The most important aspect is that the future of food starts with addressing the convenience and price points of healthier, cleaner options. I believe that access to healthy food is a human right, not a privilege. The old food system and colonial mentality clearly disagree with me. Therefore, we need to go against the lobbies of the dirty industries and work with the public sector, governments, and NGOs to reimagine the food system as a whole.